I know it’s been a while since my last post, but I’ve been really busy on many, many projects.
Anyway I just wanted to quickly mention a brand new interactive digital signage tool I developed for the folks at EasySoft: it’s essentially an augmented-reality jukebox where you can load a client’s media assets (logos, video clips,…), select an interaction model (computer vision algorithm + particle system style) and watch people play on your led wall of choice.

We just had a christmas themed test run at Stazione Termini, Rome’s main station and people seemed to enjoy

TED.com just published the video of the last performance I coded for Marco Tempest.
As always the development process was really a stimulating experience: I had the opportunity to remodel an old project by the creative coding rockstar (and dad of OpenFrameworks) Zach Lieberman and teamed up with Kevin Blanc, one of the best art directors a coder could dream of.
The performance itself is a calibrated mixture of experimental augmented reality glasses, 3D special effects and card manipulation dexterity, but, as it often happens in Marco’s work, the narrative component is always central: every shuffle reveals a story hidden inside the deck of cards, following a tradition that dates back to a 19th century story called The Soldier’s Prayer Book. If you’re interested, Marco tells more about this story and about the narrative use of playing cards in an interview published on TEDBlog.

Marco Tempest just performed at TEDGlobal 2012 the show we prepared in the last 2 months. It was a revisitation of one of his classics: a mix of card tricks and augmented reality, realized with the help of a set of weareable devices, that we could describe as our own DIY reply to Google Glass.
I’ll post videos and more info soon, but for now you can check TEDblog’s post.

Some time ago I mentioned my collaboration with onFormative and AKQA to create Nike FuelStation in London: the installation just won the first place in the April 2012 CreativeShowcase contest 🙂
Everyone worked hard on this project, so it gives a good feeling to know that people is enjoying the experience we crafted for them:

Consumers made nearly 2,000 videos in the first month, moving more in a store than they’d ever done before. The installation got them hooked on the idea of Nike+ FuelBand, with 93% coming back to buy the product on release.